81 Homunculus? (1/2)
The next day, Arima woke up on the roof and yawned. He jumped to stand and stretched a bit ”Nothing happened this night, huh?” He commented.
”…Yes” Night answered with a delay after he almost was thrown away when Arima jumped so suddenly. Now, he was grabbing Arima's shoulder but from the wrong side.
”What are you doing?” Arima asked and Night grunted ”Still, I deployed ten thousand of them, how did I find nothing? Or maybe nothing really happened this night?” He said.
Night sighed after he was back on Arima's shoulder how he should be ”Maybe. Are one of your familiars destroyed?” He asked.
”I checked already, none of them has been destroyed” Arima declared and jumped down from the roof. Directly landing in one of the academy's courts. Fortunately, there was no student there. He then directly headed toward his cla.s.sroom.
”In the end, what do you think they're planning by doing a ma.s.s murder?” Night inquired when they arrived at the cla.s.s.
”I don't know” Arima sat down on his seat and said ”Maybe it's a magic theory which needs the sacrifice of a great number of lives. Well, the first thing that comes to mind is a curse, a large scale one, or maybe something like a plague” He answered
”A curse, huh? Anything else?”
”I don't know, there's not really a lot of magic which needs a grand scale sacrifice. But, one thing is certain, if it's the preparations for some sort of ritual, then it's something not really good” Arima said and yawned ”Ah, I'm still tired” He complained.
Night sat down on the desk ”You seem to not care about it”
”Nah, it's not like that. I mean I think I'm still human enough to not ignore a ma.s.s murder like this and the deaths it could cause in the future. But you're right, it's not even my world, not even my duty and I don't need to help them” Arima smiled and said.
”But I'm still teaching in this school you know? It would be inconvenient for the city to be attacked or destroyed” He added.
Night dryly laughed ”Of course it is”
An hour or so after that, the first students arrived. When they arrived, they also spotted Arima sleeping on the seat with Night looking at him blankly.
Ultimately, it was Isla who approached Arima discreetly and woke him up. For that, she suffered a cold and annoyed look but it was worth the surprise she gave to Arima. She then went to her seat with a very awkward laugh.
Soon after, Ofia and Lena appeared inside too. Both of them had a heavy expression. When she entered, Ofia directly went toward the teacher's desk and stopped there. She looked at Arima who was waiting for her to say something.
But even after a minute, they were both silent and looking at each other.
”Hey, am I supposed to talk first or what?” Arima finally said and Ofia trembled.
”Hum, teacher… if I asked you, would you help our city?” She asked hesitatingly.
Arima's expression twitched and he poked her with his finger. Ofia looked wide-eyed while rubbing her forehead ”Give me some context, silly kid” He laid back on his seat and said.
Ofia wryly laughed while her sister also smiled when she looked there ”The results from the investigation about the attackers you saved us from last time. We got them” Ofia started to explain.
”My brother said he felt like they had no emotions when he fought them” She said and Arima nodded casually ”When we a.n.a.lyzed the bodies, we indeed found out that they were artificial bodies infused with a soul. They had different limbs on their body and even their organs didn't match the others”
”Homunculus?” Arima commented and Ofia affirmed.
”Yes. From what we know, there are not many people capable of doing that kind of work. Much less someone who wants to harm us. In the end, our research spread to the nearest continent, Firnea. We also know that its king doesn't want us good” She paused ”But the biggest piece of news we got was that two people who were on that continent were summoned and hired by the king”
”One was a Z rank mercenary, Arister Zeola” Ofia said. Arima glanced at the actual Arister on the side and the latter shrugged.
”You don't need to worry about him anymore” Arima exclaimed and Ofia furrowed and nodded.
”I understand” She responded ”For the second individual, his name is Ojure Karez”
Arima frowned ”What a strange name” He blurted out.
Ofia wryly smiled ”Yes, it is, but that person is really a problem. He once pa.s.sed by the Main Land. He is an extremely talented necromancer and healer. He's basically an expert in everything related to life and death” She said.
”Oh, interesting” Arima smiled ”So you're basically saying that Firnea is planning to defeat you with the help of that man and his expertise, right?”